The Australian,Cricket all-rounder Andrew Symonds was teased
: Australian cricketers are known to be not only the best in the game but also the masters in sledging. But during their ongoing tour of India, not only were they at the receiving end of barbs on the field, one of their players had to reportedly face unusual racial slurs in Vadodara and Nagpur.
According to The Australian, all-rounder Andrew Symonds was teased with shouts of ’monkey’ in Vadodara. Some spectators started it by jumping and imitating a monkey and were soon joined by some 20 others. Eventually, a TV presenter screamed at the crowd to silence them, it said.
There were also some reports of similar taunts on Symonds in Nagpur.
Former India players condemned the alleged racist remarks on Symonds and asked for an inquiry into the episodes.
Saba Karim felt the acts may not have been intended as a racial slur.
"Such acts are unpardonable whether it is in cricket or in any other sport," said Karim, who kept wickets for India in both Tests and ODIs. "There should be a proper inquiry into it. But I don’t think anyone had actually meant them to be racial abuse."
Former Test cricketer Ashok Mankad said that racial discrimination should not be tolerated in any field.
"I don’t know whether Symonds was abused racially by fans in Vadodara or not, but if is true it should be condemned strongly by everybody concerned.
"The Aussies should have documented their complaint so that action could be taken on the culprits and a possible repeat incident was nipped in the bud at other venues," said Mankad.
But former opener Chetan Chauhan chose to underplay the episodes by stressing: "We are a cricket loving nation and a few persons’ reactions should not matter. There are thousands of people in a stadium and if someone says something, it does not reflect the opinion of the entire country. Hence, it should not be taken seriously at all."
To this Saba Karim added, "We also go to their country and people do all sorts of things. So, they can’t be feeling uncomfortable about everything."
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